No Video on Mac at Start-up

I'm having trouble with my dual 2G Mac not starting after pressing the start-up button.

It usually takes anywhere from 4-8 tries for there to be video in the monitors, even tho' it does boot up & there is the start-up chime. I had this problem several months ago & Mac support suggested I change the battery, which I did. They also took me through the process of zapping the P-Ram. Still I had the problem.

Then a tech guy for my studio disabled classic & tweaked the "energy saver" which seemed to work until a few days ago.

It sounds like there's a problem with the monitors. Whether that means the monitor, the video cable, the cable connectors, or the video card I don't know.

But I'd start by borrowing a totally different monitor. Don't do anything untill you turn on the computer, hear the chime, but get no image. Leave the computer alone at that point and switch the monitor. See if you get anything. It mith just be a bad connection in a cable end. Hopefully you can figure out which part is the problem if that solution does work.

Hopefully my successful resolution of this post will help someone else going through the same dilema & believe me, there are MANY as one look through the forums & net will confirm. Even Applecare themselves admit to a record number of calls regarding this very problem.

I had this problem with my Mac not booting up since the beginning of this year. It would take anywhere from 5 to 7 pushes of the button for there to finally see something on the monitors. It would not even go into sleep mode. When I called AppleCare, they took me through "zapping the P-Ram" & they made me order a new battery, but still I had the problem.

As I said, one of my studio tech guys disabled classic & tweaked the "energy saver" in the Mac & the problem went away. But 2 weeks ago, the problem reappeared. Again on the phone with AppleCare, we tried various techniques & the STILL again, I had the problem.

Recently I had 3 Mac/video techies I found by local ads come into my studio at different times to set up my SD video system & they each tried a different thing on the Mac to solve the start-up problem. Nothing worked. One of the tech guys said it was definitely the logic board that needed to be replaced. Another one said bring the computer into his Apple certified facility so he could find out what the problem was. I don't have to tell you what the price & loss of time these options would have entailed.

Since the beginning of the year I have also been all over the net & to all of the major Mac/video sites researching this problem(DV Creators, Creative Cow, Videomaker, Mac World, Avid Community, Apple, etc). I have gotten some suggestions as to what this problem might be from faulty video card, motherboard, firmware conflict, monitor cables, etc).

Finally last week, I again hired the first studio techie from the beginning of the year for some audio work. When I told him I had the problem again, he immediately gave the computer a "target boot". This determined that my computer had a faulty video card, since the computer was booting up successfully on his laptop. I ordered another card from Applecare through my warranty, installed the new card & SO FAR (knock on wood) the computer works fine.

The thing is, I pay this guy $20 an hour for audio tech work. The other 3 techies I paid from $75 to $150 an hour & NONE of them suggested doing a "target boot" to FIRST rule out if it is video card problem... Hhhmmm!!

My computer is a little more than a year old & had this problem. It seems to be some G5 problem that hopefully Mac has worked out or is investigating.